Adele de Clune

"You negotiated that using an interpreter?" Fran had said and Adele had replied she spoke English and so did the people in India with whom she'd had discussions.

"Do you speak other languages?"

"Yes, French and Italian fluently and Spanish quite well and I can make myself understood when speaking Russian."

Fran's surprise ended with the comment that Adele should be working for an international corporation, only to be told, "Why? I like it here and am making good friends."

When about to unlocked the front doors of the admin building Fran noticed none of the inside lights were on. She knew that the night watchman was supposed to remain on duty until 7:30 when the first of early starters arrived. She put down her attaché case just inside the door and proceeded cautiously, wondering what was up. She called Peter the night watchman on his phone. He sounded shaken and said, "I... I'm in the general office near the s-safe Fran. I-I've had an accident."

She'd noticed the slight stuttering as well as the highly emotional tone of voice and thought oh god, sounds like a head injury. She loped to the office, rushed through the open door that closed behind her. She saw Peter on the floor, sitting with his back to the wall. He was tied up and the guy beside him was holding Peter's phone. Fran turned to flee to call the police but there was a guy standing behind her. She charged him but he lifted a shotgun and pointed it, bringing her to a halt.

"Open the safe."

"No."

"I said open the safe bitch."

"I work in design you idiot. I don't have the combination for the lock."

"Who is this bitch Peter?"

"Fran Steele, chief designer."

"You called me an idiot you bitch," snarled the skinny villain, and slapped Fran across the face with the back of his hand, making her nose bleed. The pain made her cry and she was pushed over to sit by Peter and was tied up.

"Perhaps we will have better luck to the next arrival. Will it be the office manager?"

"No," said Fran.

The guy thrust the barrels of the shotgun against Fran's chest. "Give me the correct answer Peter or this fat bitch gets a load of lead between her tits."

"Yes, Mrs Chambers comes early on Mondays."

"She has the combination?"

"Yes."

"Don't you dare frighten Mrs Chambers," Fran glared. "She's pregnant."

"Then you'll have to make sure she co-operates won't you?"

Adele arrived ten minutes later and found the front doors unlocked and inside saw Fran's attaché case. Immediately suspicious, she proceeded quietly along the route to the main office because all other offices and passages were in darkness. She stood outside the closed door and caught the conversation from the point of Mrs Chambers coming in early and would have the combination. God, was this a robbery attempt.

There were windows on both sides of the passage, letting in light into the offices. She hunched down low and crept soundlessly to the far end of the office where she stood and slowly moved forward to peer into the room through the last window. She saw a guy with a baseball bat leaning against the wall by Peter and Fran who were tied up. Walking towards the door where she'd just come from was a smaller guy with a shotgun.

Christ, he was about to check out the passages, Adele speculated, and ducked back a little and into an unlit office. She heard the office door open and the guy call, "All clear. I hope this pregnant bitch won't be delayed by morning sickness. I'll leave the door partly open so she walks straight in."

The guy didn't appear in view so Adele guessed he was probably standing with his back against the plain wall panel behind where the door opened. She decided to attack rather than wait to come in behind Mrs Chambers and risk placing the office manager in the line of fire. She grabbed a desk lamp off the desk in the room she was in and disconnected the cord from the wall socket. Excellent, the lamp had a weighted base.

Adele stood back from the door and hurled the lamp through the second window down towards the direction she'd just come from. She leaped to the door and slammed it open but it banged against the wall instead of the intruder who was swearing in fright and had gone forward to examine the projectile. Adele leaped at him and deflected the gun just in time, holding it pointing at the ceiling. There was a boom, a scream from Fran, and then they were sprayed with ceiling tiling fragments and glass from lighting.

She struggled for control of the gun and snapped the guy's finger as it reached for the trigger. Then Fran screamed, "Adele, watch out."

Adele saw the accomplice rushing at her, the bat raised. Watching him closely she watched his teeth clench and at the first movement of his leading forearm she rolled clear and the bat descended to release an agonizing cry from the shotgun-wielding intruder as the wood smashed his right shoulder.

By then Adele was on her feet, her high heels kicked off. The assailant drew the baseball bat over his shoulder, turning to strike her but too late. Adele had launched herself at him and both feet slammed into his beer-belly and he collapsed to the floor gasping. She broke her fall to the floor, jumped up and struck the distressed man with the side of her hand below his ear to knock him unconscious. She kicked the shotgun away, pulled out her phone and dialed the emergency number and asked for the police to attend a foiled safe robbery and to send two ambulances. She told the operator she couldn't hold on, to just action the requests.

"Hello you two," she smiled, at the boggling Fran and Peter the night watchman. "Are you pleased I came along?"

"Adele, my heroine," cooed Fran and Peter thanked Adele profusely and said Fran was not without courage herself.

"You -- call yourself a night watchman?" Fran snarled. "Where was your courage?"

"They jumped me when I went out the back door to investigate a scream that proved to be faked. A couple of blows and I was done. My right wrist is broken and I have a head wound."

"Head wound -- where's..."

"Hold on Fran." Adele gently pulled Peter forward and both she and Fran saw the wall behind him splattered in blood.

"Keep still Peter, you're taken a really hard knock. Help is on the way."

"Adele," Fran whispered, eyes widening.

Adele turned to where Fran was looking at and saw the other guy, who must have been in agony, crawling on his good side and had almost reached the shotgun. She darted over, brought her heel heavily on his good hand and grabbing the gun by the barrel knock him out with it, silencing his screaming, and returned to Fran and Peter with it. Still linked on the emergency line she answered the request for directions how the police who were almost at the plant would find them. Adele then untied Fran and Peter.

Police with guns drawn came into the room cautiously and at the sight of two guys on the floor unconscious, Peter looking not too good and two women waving at them visibly relaxed and the team leader called, "Situation report."

Fran said, "Well it was like this officer. I came to work..."

"Hush Fran," Adele said, and told the sergeant, "The two men on the floor took two unhelpful workers prisoner and lay in wait for the office manager, still to arrive, to induce her to open the safe. Unfortunately for the intruders I came along. They require hospital treatment. as does our night watchman here with a head wound. Please send him to hospital separately. My colleague here suffered no more than humiliation and a nose breed."

The sergeant gaped. "Are you telling me your disarmed an intruder with a loaded shotgun and his accomplice wielding that baseball bat and knocked them out and recovered the shotgun?"

"Yes sergeant. It was fairly routine."

"Do you work here?"

"Yes, as assistant chief designer. This is my boss Mrs Steele."

"That is correct sergeant. I can tell you Adele was awesome. She is ex British Army and..."

"That is all for the moment ma'am," said the sergeant approaching them, three other police officers had their handguns at the ready."

"Allow me to take possession of the shotgun."

"Yes sergeant. It's all yours. It was only fired the once in this room and into the ceiling when I was disarming the bigger guy."

"You mean you took the shotgun off Lefty Murphy?"

"He didn't give a name," Adele smiled. "I didn't touch the lower end of the gun in case the prints can trace the owner of the gun."

"Adele did disarm Mr Murphy sergeant. You should have seen Adele..."

"That is all for the moment ma'am. We'll take statements shortly."

They watched as Peter was attended to and taken off to the ambulance.

The management meeting was delayed and Fran skipped working on the drawings to produce a draft in consultation with the production manager and his deputy of production on costs of the military-style hunting suits. With pressure on for an instant decision because of the chance to import the fabric from Indian at a good price and greatly reduced freight rates the decision to do with the project was on.

Andy who chaired the meeting looked at the designer and production manager. "Okay, what do you two say? Remember a couple of our competitors import similar-styled military type hunting outfits." The two department heads consulted briefly and it was decided to go ahead. Andy authorized them to proceed and said his gut feeling was the new project was likely to be a winner because female hunters would view the outfits as being stylish as well as very practical and wives would like seeing their recreational hunter husbands in military-style close-fitting apparel.

"It's like putting sex appeal into the dress of serious hunters," Adele said lightly, and everyone agreed.

* * *

Two months later Andy took Adele on a hunting trip that brought them even closer together. Although Adele now lived with Andy, the remoteness of their mission without other people around them had them really focusing on each other. They were dressed in the new-style cat suits that had just become the company's third largest seller because as Adele had suggested, the style, coloring and versatility of the suit appealed to serious hunters.

They'd come to bring home a deer and when they had both lined up on a young buck, Adele said softly, you take him. I only shoot predators. The shot was successful and as Andy divided up the carcass for them to backpack he said, "Well it will be a 16-hour hike back with this lot. I'm surprised you are not asking me to bury the off-cuts and offal."

"Why? It will be food for forest scavengers."

During a rest break, Andy said she was such a complex person. She was stylish, highly intelligent and yet out in the wilds she made it appear it was her home and she was happy to live very basically.

"I find it easy to adapt. I suppose I'm without hang-ups apart from the loss of my family."

They remained in thoughtful silence for almost a minute, broken by Andy asking, "Adaptive enough to marry me?"

Adele yawned and stood, lifting her backpack of meat. Andy had not moved, his eyes riveted on her.

"Is this a proposal?"

"Depends on the answer I get."

"In that case propose we make tracks. You have some convincing to do," she smiled but Andy saw what he wanted to see. He'd noted a sly smile. He climbed to his feel in triumph.

THE END